Latino Identity

Jessica Alba ashamed of her heritage?While we’d like to believe that what Jessica Alba reportedly has been saying about her Mexican heritage is a big, fat, ugly lie, we’re just not so sure anymore. Here are some bytes excerpted from her interview with Para Todos magazine. It’s got many Latinos saying, “What in the heezy?!”

“I’ve got cousins galore. Mexicans just spread all their seeds. And the women just pop them out.”

“My grandfather was the only Mexican at his college, the only Hispanic person at work and the only one at the all-white country club. He tried to forget his Mexican roots, because he never wanted his kids to be made to feel different in America. He and my grandmother didn’t speak Spanish to their children. Now, as a third-generation American, I feel as if I have finally cut loose.”

“My whole life, when I was growing up, not one race has ever accepted me. So I never felt connected or attached to any race specifically. I had a very American upbringing, I feel American, and I don’t speak Spanish. So, to say that I’m a Latin actress, OK, but it’s not fitting; it would be insincere.”

Meanwhile, Cameron Diaz embraces her Latina-ness…
By contrast, Ms. Diaz, a third generation Cuban, recently said the following in an interview, and we heart her for it. “My Latin roots are very strong. All my life, because I’m blonde and blue-eyed, people who aren’t Hispanic can’t believe I am. And people who are Hispanic always think I’m not, because I don’t look like them. Being Latin is part of who I am and I bring that part to every role.”

It’s totally acceptable that Jessica Alba is being completely honest about her Latin roots, or lack thereof, in a new interview with Para Todos Magazine.

The issue is not that she considers herself less Latina than Cameron Diaz, nor that she was raised to deny her heritage in order to fit in.

(BTW she grew up in Pomona, California where the majority population is Mexican American).

The real issue is she seems to be content that the only ties she has with the Latin race is her last name.

“My whole life, when I was growing up, not one race has ever accepted me, … So I never felt connected or attached to any race specifically. I had a very American upbringing, I feel American, and I don’t speak Spanish. So, to say that I’m a Latin actress, OK, but it’s not fitting; it would be insincere.”

If she likes feeling “American,” which means not tied to “any race specifically” then we feel really sorry for her.

It’s pretty fitting that Jessica was so candid about not wanting to be pigeonholed as a Latina in a Latin magazine. The onslaught has already begun.